The Roads of Friendship: Concert for Syria on RAI 1
"The Roads of Friendship" – the concert conducted by Riccardo Muti at the Archaeological Park of Paestum on July 5 – is broadcast on RAI 1 on Wednesday 23 July, at 23:15.
This year, "The Roads of Friendship" was dedicated to Syria, buttered by almost ten years of conflict; in particular, it was intended to honour civil activist Hevrin Khalaf and archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad, killed by ISIL.
Italian musicians of the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and Syrian musicians of the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra played together under Maestro Muti’s baton to give voice to the ideals of equality, freedom, fraternity that inspired Beethoven’s Eroica.
Since it was not possible to have a concert in Syria nor to have musicians from that Country, expatriate musicians joined the Cherubini Orchestra, they too victims of the diaspora affecting Syrian people.
After the concert in Ravenna on July 3, the appointment took place also in the Archaeological Park of Paestum, that shared with the Syrian site of Palmira the mutual Roman past, the UNESCO recognition, and the recent twinning. So, through Paestum, the project has ideally reached Syria and in particular Palmira, whose temples were injured by terrorism.
Khaled al-Asaad had been director of Palmira for decades, and in 2015 he was killed just because he tried to protect the finds and culture of that site.
Hevrin Khalaf, general secretary of the Future Syria Party, women’s rights activist and at the front line for the recognition of Kurdish people’s identity and for a peaceful dialogue among Kurds, Christians, and Arabs, was killed in an ambush last October.
Performances by singer Aynur Doğan and artist Zehra Doğan, both of Kurdish origins, preceded the Symphony no. 3.